Bitcoin fell below $81,000 during Asian trading on Thursday as a sharp selloff in regional equities and hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data pushed traders out of risk-sensitive assets. BTC was down 3.6% over 24 hours at $80,764 as of 11:50 p.m. ET Wednesday, while Ether dropped 6.5% to $2,353.
The decline coincided with a broad risk-off move that hit technology shares particularly hard in South Korea and Japan. Crypto liquidations reached $951.4 million over the same 24-hour period, with long positions accounting for $876.3 million of the total, according to CoinGlass. The imbalance indicates that the slide caught a heavily bullish derivatives market on the wrong side of a rapid repricing.
Asian stocks extend the risk-off move
South Korea’s Kospi fell 8% in morning trading, led by major semiconductor names. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropped more than 9%, placing pressure on a market closely tied to global demand for chips, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and electronics exports.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 5.2% during the morning session. The regional losses followed an overnight decline on Wall Street after U.S. inflation figures came in above expectations.
Digital assets frequently trade through Asian equity hours even when traditional markets are closed elsewhere, making the region’s opening session a period of heightened volatility for Bitcoin and other major tokens. Thursday’s move showed that connection clearly: the weakness in crypto was broad, with large-cap tokens declining alongside high-beta technology equities.
Solana fell 4.8% over 24 hours, while XRP declined 4.7%. Zcash suffered the steepest loss among the largest cryptocurrencies, dropping 12.8% to $1,101. The sharper decline in several alternative tokens reflected their tendency to move more aggressively than Bitcoin when traders reduce exposure across derivatives and spot markets.
Inflation reading clouds rate outlook
The market reaction followed U.S. inflation data showing a 3.7% reading, above expectations, with core consumer prices also rising more than forecast. Core CPI excludes food and energy prices and is closely watched because it can offer a clearer view of persistent price pressures in services and other parts of the economy.
A stronger inflation reading complicates expectations for lower U.S. interest rates. When price growth remains elevated, the Federal Reserve has less room to cut borrowing costs quickly without risking another acceleration in inflation.
That calculation reaches crypto markets through several channels. Higher expected rates can raise government bond yields, which compete with volatile assets for capital. They can also strengthen the U.S. dollar, often creating pressure on dollar-priced assets including Bitcoin, commodities, growth stocks, and smaller cryptocurrencies.
The immediate market response did not establish a new long-term direction for Bitcoin, but it placed the token back in the same macroeconomic trade that has shaped many major moves in recent years. Assets with high sensitivity to liquidity conditions tend to suffer when traders conclude that rates could remain restrictive for longer than previously expected.
Long liquidations deepen the decline
CoinGlass recorded $876.3 million in liquidated long positions, far exceeding the amount lost by traders betting on lower prices. A long liquidation occurs when a leveraged trader’s collateral can no longer support a position, prompting the exchange’s system to close the trade.
Those forced closures can amplify a selloff. Closing a long position generally requires selling the underlying asset or an associated contract, adding supply during a period when buyers may already be stepping back. The resulting price decline can trigger further liquidations at lower levels.
The $951.4 million total is substantial but remains below the roughly $19 billion market wipeout recorded during an extreme liquidation event on October 10, 2025. The comparison suggests that leverage had created meaningful pressure in the latest drop without yet reaching the kind of system-wide deleveraging associated with the market’s largest cascade events.
Bitcoin’s retreat below $81,000 also carries psychological weight because round-number levels often become focal points for derivatives positioning and short-term technical trading. Whether the level holds will depend partly on how equities respond after the initial inflation shock and whether bond markets continue to price out near-term rate cuts.
Volatility returns to the forefront
The selloff underscores the risk of relying heavily on borrowed funds during periods when macroeconomic data can alter market expectations within minutes. Leverage can magnify gains in rising markets, but sudden shifts in inflation, rate expectations, or equity sentiment can turn relatively modest price declines into forced exits.
For Bitcoin and Ether, the next trading sessions are likely to be shaped less by blockchain-specific developments than by the reaction in global stocks, Treasury yields, and the dollar. With South Korean chipmakers and Japanese equities already under heavy pressure, crypto traders are confronting a market in which the appetite for risk has weakened across several major asset classes at once.
Concerned about inflation-driven volatility? Learn how crypto crash strategies can help you manage risk during sharp Bitcoin and altcoin downturns.
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